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3232Podcast: Hemric crew chief Danny Stockman on Xfinity title chasehttps://racer.com/2018/11/14/podcast-hemric-crew-chief-danny-stockman-on-xfinity-title-chase/
https://racer.com/2018/11/14/podcast-hemric-crew-chief-danny-stockman-on-xfinity-title-chase/#respondWed, 14 Nov 2018 13:15:41 +0000http://racer.com/?p=178461Danny Stockman will guide Daniel Hemric and the No. 21 Richard Childress Racing team into the Xfinity Series championship race this weekend. Stockman is a NASCAR veteran and has spent a lot of time working to get to this position.

In this podcast you’ll hear how a week shakes out for a crew chief from one race to another; whether Stockman (pictured at left, with Hemric) knew of Daniel Hemric before working with him; praise for Hemric’s racing intelligence and how involved he is with the team; the difference in performance from 2017-18; Stockman’s racing background and connection to Brendan Gaughan; his history with Gaughan as well as champion Ron Hornaday; giving up driving to work on cars; the milestone Stockman set when he wanted to reach crew chief status; spending his teenage years studying racing books and being distracted in school; settling into the Xfinity Series now for a number of years; working with the Dillon boys versus other drivers; preaching mental toughness to his team; his leadership style and how Stockman feels he has grown over the years; what other accomplishments he still hopes to achieve in NASCAR.

]]>https://racer.com/2018/11/14/podcast-hemric-crew-chief-danny-stockman-on-xfinity-title-chase/feed/017POC1LW0535andrewcraskCindric to race full-time for Penske in 2019 Xfinity Serieshttps://racer.com/2018/11/09/cindric-to-race-full-time-for-penske-in-2019-xfinity-series/
https://racer.com/2018/11/09/cindric-to-race-full-time-for-penske-in-2019-xfinity-series/#respondFri, 09 Nov 2018 13:13:20 +0000http://racer.com/?p=177914Austin Cindric will again compete full-time in the NASCAR Xfinity Series next season but this time soley under the Team Penske banner.

Penske announced Cindric as the primary driver of its No. 22 Ford Thursday night. Cindric is two races away from finishing his rookie season in the series and is still championship eligible going into Saturday’s race at ISM Raceway in Phoenix. He has been splitting time this year between Penske and Roush Fenway Racing.

“I have had such a unique opportunity this year to learn from so many people, and to learn quite a lot in a short amount of time,” said Cindric. “To have the chance to apply that experience for a full season with Team Penske in 2019 is a huge step in my career. I am so grateful for the confidence Mr. Penske, the 22 team, Ford Performance, Team Penske and all of their partners have put in me. I can’t wait to see what we’ll be able to accomplish together.”

Team owner Roger Penske said the 20-year-old Cindric, son of Team Penske president Tim Cindric, a has done a “solid job” this year under tough circumstances.

“He has earned the opportunity to compete full-time and fight for the championship in 2019,” Penske said. “We are excited to continue to see him develop his stock car skills and he should be one of the exciting young drivers to watch next season.”

Image by Russell LaBounty/LAT

Splitting time between two organizations have brought mixed results for Cindric, but when behind the wheel of a Team Penske car, Cindric has performed well. His 11 top-10 finishes this season have all come either driving the No. 12 or 22. Cindric also has five top-five finishes and three poles with Penske, and all 137 of his laps led have also been with Penske.

The Penske organization will also continue to run a second Xfinity Series car, the No. 12, on a limited basis next year. Brad Keselowski, Joey Logano, Ryan Blaney, and Paul Menard will share the ride.

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Team Penske also revealed that MoneyLion would be a primary sponsor on Cindric’s car for 18 races next year. The company entered the NASCAR landscape this season with Penske and will be increasing its support from four races.

MoneyLion is also going to sponsor two NASCAR Cup Series races for Logano (spring Talladega, Watkins Glen) as well as one race for Blaney (spring Phoenix).

“Team Penske has shown uncompromising support of our efforts thus far, and we only aim to reciprocate that to Team Penske and NASCAR fans everywhere,” said Dee Choubey, CEO and co-founder of MoneyLion. “We’re thrilled to show our commitment to the sport and its fans in new and exciting ways that fans can truly experience. We’re so proud to support Team Penske’s team’s efforts, and look forward to growing our support of the broader team next season with Austin, Joey, Ryan, and their crews.”

]]>https://racer.com/2018/11/09/cindric-to-race-full-time-for-penske-in-2019-xfinity-series/feed/02018 KansasandrewcraskChevy reveals new 2019 bodies for Xfinity, Truckshttps://racer.com/2018/11/02/chevy-reveals-new-2019-bodies-for-xfinity-trucks/
https://racer.com/2018/11/02/chevy-reveals-new-2019-bodies-for-xfinity-trucks/#respondFri, 02 Nov 2018 17:59:17 +0000http://racer.com/?p=177382Chevrolet will update the body for the Camaro SS in the NASCAR Xfinity Series next season, while the Silverado in the Gander Outdoors (formerly Camping World) Truck Series is being redesigned. The manufacturer announced the changes Friday morning at Texas Motor Speedway.

For the Camaro SS, this will be the third update since its debut in the Xfinity Series in 2013. The Silverado will undergo its very first update since 2014.

Per Chevrolet, the notable changes will be to the upper front fascia, fenders, hood and tail regions to reflect the look of the new production models.

“We always want to align our racing vehicles with what is available in the showroom,” said Jim Campbell, vice president of performance Vehicles and motorsports. “The Camaro SS was updated for the 2019 model year, and Silverado RST is all new. We can’t wait to see the Camaro SS and the Silverado RST on the track next February at Daytona.”

]]>https://racer.com/2018/11/02/chevy-reveals-new-2019-bodies-for-xfinity-trucks/feed/0xfinity_Chevy_2019andrewcraskBriscoe takes first Xfinity win on Charlotte Rovalhttps://racer.com/2018/09/29/briscoe-takes-first-xfinity-win-on-charlotte-roval/
https://racer.com/2018/09/29/briscoe-takes-first-xfinity-win-on-charlotte-roval/#respondSat, 29 Sep 2018 21:18:34 +0000http://racer.com/?p=174008Chase Briscoe made the most of pit strategy that put him out front during Saturday’s inaugural NASCAR Xfinity Series race at the Charlotte Motor Speedway road course.

Leading the last 24 of 55 laps in the Drive for the Cure 200 at the challenging 2.28-mile, 17-turn road course — thanks to a pit stop on Lap 26, before the end of Stage 2 — Briscoe held off Justin Marks after the last restart on Lap 45 and took the checkered flag 1.478 seconds ahead of Marks’ No. 42 Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet.

Driving the No. 98 Ford fielded by Biagi DenBeste Racing in collaboration with Stewart-Haas Racing, Briscoe claimed his first victory in the series. Neither Briscoe nor Marks are playoff contenders, given that neither is running a full Xfinity Series season.

“This is unreal,” an elated Briscoe said after the race. “I was four seconds off in practice, and my guys stuck behind me and kept working with me. It’s just an honor and privilege to drive a race car and to do it for my hero, (Stewart-Haas co-owner) Tony Stewart, and get a win.

Image by Kinrade/LAT

“I feel like my career was getting really bad this year, and I needed to get my stock back up, and I just can’t believe it. Thanks to all these fans for coming out — what an awesome crowd! I hope you all enjoyed that race. It’s going to be a good one tomorrow (Sunday’s Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series event).”

Briscoe took particular pride in winning the inaugural race on the Charlotte road course, which combines an infield section with the traditional oval punctuated by two chicanes.

“It’s huge to me,” Briscoe said. “Everybody had to adapt to it and figure it out, and I don’t know that I’m necessarily the best at it, but I felt like I just tried not to hit anything, and this thing hardly has a scratch on it.”

Marks, a road-course specialist who is also running Sunday’s Bank of America Roval 400 (2 p.m. ET on NBC, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), gave the Charlotte Road Course a favorable review.

“These Roval races are always challenging for these series to put on, given the confines of the oval, but I thought it was great,” Marks said. “If we’re going to reinvigorate this fan base and we’re going to regain some positive momentum on our side, we’ve got to think outside the box and do things like this.

“So I really applauded the effort everybody made to put this track together. The track itself is challenging … They did a great job of painting the infield, there’s a lot of grip there, and it’s a really challenging course. But you want to challenge this group of drivers. You want it to be hard for them. …

“I thought it was great. I thought it was awesome. You’ve got tight corners, and then you’ve got the things wound up to 160 miles an hour on the oval, and that’s a little bit of everything these cars do. That makes it an exciting event.”

Pole winner and playoff driver Austin Cindric recovered from a spin in Turn 6 while leading on Lap 14 to finish third in front of Ryan Preece and series leader Christopher Bell, who has advanced to Round 2 of the Playoffs by virtue of his Sept. 21 victory at Richmond.

In fact, Cindric and Daniel Hemric had arguably the two fastest cars, but, like Cindric, Hemric made a mistake that cost him a chance to battle for the win.

On Lap 45, after the final restart, Hemric blew the frontstretch chicane and paid the prescribed penalty of a full stop in the tri-oval. He fell to 15th and fought his way back to 10th at the finish.

Approaching next week’s playoff cutoff race at Dover, Bell is the only driver locked into the second round. With the field to be trimmed from 12 to eight contenders after the Dover race, Cindric is in ninth place, nine points behind Ross Chastain in eighth.

In the wide-open competition for the top eight spots, only 12 points separate third place Tyler Reddick from Chastain.

]]>https://racer.com/2018/09/29/briscoe-takes-first-xfinity-win-on-charlotte-roval/feed/0lam_180929CMSR3916andrewcraskDixon says NASCAR Xfinity, Bathurst are on his radarhttps://racer.com/2018/09/24/dixon-says-nascar-xfinity-bathurst-are-on-his-radar/
https://racer.com/2018/09/24/dixon-says-nascar-xfinity-bathurst-are-on-his-radar/#commentsMon, 24 Sep 2018 19:26:07 +0000http://racer.com/?p=173506Scott Dixon has achieved more success than most professional race car drivers, and even with his fifth IndyCar Series championship recently secured, the New Zealander says there’s more he wants to achieve.

Along with his five IndyCar titles, the 38-year-old has a victory at the Indianapolis 500 and a pair of overall wins at the prestigious Rolex 24 At Daytona, and given the chance, he’d like to pursue more hardware in everything from stock cars to LMP1 prototypes.

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“Bathurst is one,” he said of Australia’s most famous circuit. “I’d probably prefer to do the Bathurst 12 Hour in the GT spec. I’d would be very hard to jump into the [Australian] Supercar forum and compete well in that. I’d like to do that in stages.

“Le Mans is a race I’ve done; we finished on the [GTE-Pro] podium in the first year. Winning that outright would be tremendous, but [getting a seat in a] prototype is also very tough. Maybe a [NASCAR] Xfinity race. I’d love to do a road course. There are definitely other things I’d like to do, but the reality is it’s not always the easiest to pull off.”

Representing Honda in IndyCar with Chip Ganassi Racing and Ford in IMSA and the WEC with CGR’s factory program for the Blue Oval could, as the 38-year-old sees it, add a layer of difficulty in doing one-off races for other teams and manufacturers. The only easy path would be, if his boss agrees, driving one of CGR’s Xfinity cars at some point in the future, and with Formula 1 star Fernando Alonso venturing out into new racing disciplines, Dixon knows it’s possible.

“The cross-platform [races] are quite difficult to achieve [with] schedules and sponsors, but having said that, I think [Fernando] Alonso has opened a lot of eyes in the fact that you can switch around a little bit.” he said. “He’s done a very good job; it’s not an easy thing, he’s a huge talent and one of few that I would think would be able to pull it off. One day I hope to try a few different things.”

]]>https://racer.com/2018/09/24/dixon-says-nascar-xfinity-bathurst-are-on-his-radar/feed/12018 SonomaandrewcraskHarvick calls time on Xfinity Serieshttps://racer.com/2018/09/06/harvick-calls-time-on-xfinity-series/
https://racer.com/2018/09/06/harvick-calls-time-on-xfinity-series/#respondThu, 06 Sep 2018 20:59:57 +0000http://racer.com/?p=171841NASCAR Cup Series drivers will not be able to compete in Xfinity Series races after this weekend at Indianapolis, but Kevin Harvick says he’s done with the series for the foreseeable future anyway.

The two-time Xfinity Series champion said earlier this week on his SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Show “Happy Hours” that the Sept. 1 race at Darlington was his last scheduled appearance. Harvick will focus on his No. 4 Ford team at Stewart-Haas Racing instead of splitting time between the garages.

“I feel like with the two-day schedules, and my family and all of the things that came up this year just because of the way the schedules worked out and the races I chose, I just need to focus on my Cup car and the things that are happening there,” Harvick said.

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“It’s not to say that I won’t run here or there if we have a sponsor or somebody who needs something, or there’s a new racetrack that’s intriguing. But for me, there’s no more planned Xfinity races.”

Harvick has run 346 Xfinity Series races since 1999 with 47 career wins, including one this season. Driving a second SHR car in the series, Harvick won at Atlanta Motor Speedway in February. He also competed at Texas, Michigan, Chicago, and Darlington, where he had a highly-publicized run-in with Ross Chastain as the two battled for the lead.

Darlington had a tight schedule for drivers running both series. The Friday afternoon practice sessions went back and forth between an Xfinity session to a Cup session, back to Xfinity and then Cup. There were only 10 minutes between the end of one practice and the start of another.

“I needed to be in the Cup hauler with Rodney [Childers, crew chief] and those guys making sure that my car was 100 percent dialed in between practices,” Harvick continued. “For me, there’s really no reason to go out and run the Xfinity races with the way the schedules have become in order to get the most out of my Cup car.”

The 2006 season was the last time Harvick ran a full Xfinity Series schedule in addition to his Cup schedule. He has made limited starts – with the number decreasing over the years – since then.

NASCAR also limits the number of starts a Cup Series driver can make in the Xfinity Series. This year it was lowered from 10 to seven races if the driver has more than five years of full-time experience, which Harvick has.

However, NASCAR also ruled that drivers earning Cup Series points no matter the experience level will not be eligible to compete in the Xfinity Series regular-season finale (Sept. 15 at Las Vegas) or any of the playoff races. That makes Saturday afternoon at Indianapolis the last Xfinity Series race this season with a Cup Series driver presence.

]]>https://racer.com/2018/09/06/harvick-calls-time-on-xfinity-series/feed/0NASCAR Xfinity SeriesmarkglendenningKeselowski takes command late for Darlington Xfinity winhttps://racer.com/2018/09/01/keselowski-takes-command-late-for-darlington-xfinity-win/
https://racer.com/2018/09/01/keselowski-takes-command-late-for-darlington-xfinity-win/#respondSat, 01 Sep 2018 22:33:22 +0000http://racer.com/?p=171366Brad Keselowski took the lead in Saturday’s Sport Clips Haircuts VFW 200 at Darlington Raceway when the two cars in front of him tangled off Turn 2.

That was all the driver of the No. 2 Team Penske Ford needed to collect his first NASCAR Xfinity Series victory at the Track Too Tough to Tame.

From a restart on Lap 91, Keselowski chased pole winner and race leader Ross Chastain, who won the first and second stages in his maiden run in the No. 42 Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet. On Lap 104, Keselowski pulled ahead in Turn 3 but brushed the outside wall as Chastain regained the top spot with a crossover move to the inside.

Keselowski’s bobble allowed Harvick to pass for second, but on Lap 111, Harvick and Chastain collided off Turn 2 and handed the top spot to Keselowski, who held it the rest of the way.

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With his third victory in five starts this season and the 39th of his career, Keselowski knocked a significant item off his bucket list. Darlington and Sonoma had been the only two active NASCAR tracks where Keselowski had raced without a national touring series win.

“I really wanted to run this race for that reason,” said Keselowski, who beat runner-up Cole Custer to the finish line by .738 seconds. “I just haven’t been that great here at the (Monster Energy NASCAR) Cup level, and I’m trying to get better. This is such a huge confidence boost.”

Had Chastain and Harvick not wrecked together, the ending might have been quite different.

“I could keep up with Ross, but I couldn’t pass him — he was so fast,” Keselowski said. “Tried to make the move and brushed the wall, and he got back by me, and then they had the wreck off of (Turn) 2, and I was able to take advantage of the opportunity.”

The story for much of the race was Chastain, who started on the pole and led a race-high 90 laps behind the wheel of the No. 42 Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet. Chastain led all 45 laps of Stage 1 and the final 20 laps of Stage 2 to score his first playoff points of the 2018 season as he looks to march into the 12-driver postseason field.

Up until Lap 111, Chastain had a dream race going. Harvick made a move to Chastain’s inside through Turns 1 and 2. Unwilling to give up the top spot, Chastain stayed in the gas within inches of the right side of Harvick’s No. 98 Ford. Harvick’s car drifted up into Chastain’s No. 42 Chevrolet, which bounced off the outside wall at the exit from Turn 2. Chastain then clipped the rear of Harvick’s Ford and sent it spinning. Harvick expressed his displeasure by parking in Chastain’s pit stall before exiting the race.

“I tried to stay as low as I could, and he just rode on my door,” Harvick explained later. “That’s just a really inexperienced racer and a really bad move there and got the air and got on beside me and just kept going up the race track. I couldn’t do anything with the wheel.”

Chastain hadn’t seen a replay of the incident when he gave his assessment after finishing the race in 25th, two laps down.

“I got to race with these guys, and I feel like I was holding my own with ‘em,” Chastain said. “I was really happy to be out there racing with ‘em. … I was just trying to race. I’ll have to see the film, and if I made a mistake, it’s on me. I was the leader there, and I was just trying to race.”

Chastain had earned the pole position earlier in the day — his first in the series coming in his first of three starts behind the wheel of the No. 42 Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet. Prior to this start, Chastain had made all his starts in the No. 4 JD Motorsports Chevrolet.

Tyler Reddick, Denny Hamlin and Elliott Sadler completed the top five. Justin Allgaier kept the points lead with a seventh-place finish in the race. He holds the lead over Elliott Sadler (-16), Custer (-17) and Christopher Bell (-36). Contact between championship contenders Daniel Hemric and Bell led to some left-front damage for Bell early in Stage 2. Hemric took on some right side damage from the contact as well. Bell would go down a lap that he would never get back and his day would only get worse as he blew a left-front tire on his No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota that brought out a caution on Lap 65. Bell finished 34th, while Hemric finished 11th.

Brandon Jones was one of three drivers to lock into the playoff field; Matt Tifft and Ryan Truex were the other two. They join Allgaier, Sadler, Custer, Bell, Hemric and Reddick as drivers that have already clinched spots in the 12-driver playoff field.

The Xfinity Series will be back in action next Saturday, Sept. 8 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway with the Lilly Diabetes 250 (3 p.m. ET on NBCSN, IMS Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) — the penultimate race of the regular season.

Driving this week for Roush Fenway Racing, Cindric took a hard hit in the No. 60 Ford on the frontstretch after being tagged in the left rear by Ryan Truex. The contact happened off Turn 4 and sent Cindric spinning to the inside and destroying his race car just two laps into the race.

But Cindric wasn’t just mad about the accident. It was a season’s worth of frustration bubbling to the surface.

“This has been quite a wild a year,” Cindric said. “Got poles [at Iowa and Mid-Ohio]. Had great races. I haven’t had one race this year that I could say has gone how you’d want a race to go. My only mindset coming into today was to learn 200 miles around Darlington. That’s all I cared about. All I cared about was getting a good run for this team, and to be taken out on Lap 2 sucks. Sucks bad, and just shows the level of respect some guys race with.

“It’s tough. It bothers me a lot but got to keep fighting. Can’t give up. But it’s been a tough year.”

The emotion could also be heard in Cindric’s voice over the team radio after the crash. Asked by his team if he was OK, Cindric replied he was, but voice cracking he added, “This is ridiculous.”

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Darlington will be Cindric’s fifth DNF of the season. The 19-year-old is running a full season this year and hoping to make the Xfinity Series playoffs. His season, however, is being split between time in a Roush car, as he was Saturday afternoon, and running a Team Penske car in other events.

Cindric’s average finish going into the Sport Clips Haircuts VFW 200 was 17.5, and he has just seven top-10 finishes.

“It was just one of those racing deals,” Cindric said. “It’s hard for the spotters to see off of [Turn] 4, but either somebody cleared themselves up too early or…. I mean, we were right by the wall so there’s nothing I can do. I get turned on and plug the fence two laps into the race. I’m really frustrated about that. I’m frustrated that this is my last race with the 60 car. This team has worked really, really hard and has nothing to show for it.

“It’s a bummer to end on this kind of a note, but we’ll keep moving and keep fighting. I’m in the 12 car at Indy. It should be a good run and then finish out the year in the 22, so hopefully, we can stay above the playoff cut line and keep going.”

When Cindric was starting to be asked if he had had previous run-ins or issues with Truex, he hurried said, “I don’t care who it is.”

]]>https://racer.com/2018/09/01/cindrics-frustration-shows-after-darlington-xfinity-wreck/feed/02018 Bristol IIandrewcraskNASCAR tweaks Xfinity field size for 2019https://racer.com/2018/08/23/nascar-tweaks-trucks-xfinity-field-sizes-for-2019/
https://racer.com/2018/08/23/nascar-tweaks-trucks-xfinity-field-sizes-for-2019/#respondThu, 23 Aug 2018 18:04:16 +0000http://racer.com/?p=170198The field size of the Xfinity Series, as well as the eligibility for the Owner Championship, will look different in 2019 for both the Xfinity and Gander Outdoors Truck Series.

NASCAR announced the procedural changes Thursday with the most notable being the Xfinity Series field going from 40 to 38 cars. In doing so, NASCAR will take the purse money that had been awarded to the 39th and 40th-place cars and spread it among the rest of the field.

“Our goal is to ensure that each race features the strongest field and best racing for our fans,” said NASCAR vice president of racing operations John Bobo. “The NASCAR Xfinity Series already features some of the tightest competition throughout the field. This adjustment will further strengthen an already outstanding series.”

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Additionally, owners in both the Xfinity and Gander Outdoors Truck Series will only earn playoff points and have a race win counting toward eligibility of the Owner Championship if the driver capturing said points/win has declared for points in that series.

In its announcement, NASCAR said the changes were aimed “at strengthening both the competition on the racetrack and the identity of each series.”

NASCAR also announced the four Dash 4 Cash races for the Xfinity Series. The program will start with the qualifying race at Texas Motor Speedway (March 30) and then go to Bristol Motor Speedway (April 6), Richmond Raceway (April 12), Talladega Superspeedway (April 27) and Dover International Speedway (May 4).

]]>https://racer.com/2018/08/23/nascar-tweaks-trucks-xfinity-field-sizes-for-2019/feed/0NASCAR Xfinity SeriesandrewcraskSadler: ‘I’ve given myself enough time to try and win a championship’https://racer.com/2018/08/16/sadler-ive-given-myself-enough-time-to-try-and-win-a-championship/
https://racer.com/2018/08/16/sadler-ive-given-myself-enough-time-to-try-and-win-a-championship/#respondThu, 16 Aug 2018 20:50:41 +0000http://racer.com/?p=169427needed to win a NASCAR championship. Having been in the sport (...)]]>A year ago, Elliott Sadler faced the question of whether he needed to win a NASCAR championship. Having been in the sport since 1995, and with four second-place point finishes in the Xfinity Series, did Sadler feel he had to push over the hump before his career was over?

The JR Motorsports veteran said he certainly wanted to win a title, both for himself and his parents, and Sadler admitted he would feel empty if he didn’t do that before his career was over.

Sitting second in points with five races to go in the regular season, Sadler looks to be safe to make the postseason again. There are 12 races left in the year before Sadler then becomes a full-time dad.

So how does Sadler feel now about chasing that elusive title now that he knows the end is in sight?

“I definitely want to win a championship,” Sadler said. “That’s what I have strived for my whole career, is to a win championship in NASCAR. And man, have we come close. I’m not going to bore you with all the stats or whatever that shows. But I felt like I have put my best foot forward, and we’re trying to do that again, and that’s why I wanted to make this [news] known earlier rather than later so when it gets playoff time we can focus on the playoffs.

“So, if we don’t win a championship, yes, it’ll bother me. It’ll be some sleepless nights over that, but I feel like I have pursued my dream long enough.”

Elliott Sadler and son Wyatt in 2014. (Image by Nigel Kinrade/LAT)

Sadler became emotional in the Bristol Motor Speedway media center during the times when he talked about his children. Son Wyatt is 8 and daughter Austyn is 6, both of which are the reason Sadler wants to give up the steering wheel. Both of his children are active in sports, such as travel ball leagues and Sadler loves being a coach.

The reason in which Sadler said his news was phrased the way it was – that he wouldn’t be racing full-time – is that he is leaving open the door to running races again. But only if JRM calls him, and Sadler said it couldn’t be during the busy ball season of summer with the kids.

“I almost feel selfish the last couple years that it’s about pursuing my dreams, it’s about me racing to win races or win championships when I have two kids that are thoroughly involved in different things in their life, and I think I’ve been selfish long enough,” Sadler said.

“One final push for a championship, but I want to help them pursue their dreams. Win, lose or draw we’re [the No. 1 team] going to put our best effort forward, but it’s more important to me to be involved in what they’re doing and being a part of their life right now to achieve their dreams than it is to keep pursuing my own.

“I’ve given myself enough time to try and win a championship. Now it’s time to put my dad hat on and help them.”

Sadler has 17 career wins across NASCAR’s three series, with his last Xfinity Series victory coming at Kentucky in 2016. He has never won a national series championship, finishing sixth or better in the Xfinity Series points the last seven years.